


Aiding and Asistance Protocols

by dasakuryo



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-13 02:31:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5691304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dasakuryo/pseuds/dasakuryo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey is used to fend for herself since a very young age; and so the prospect of being helped at times seems alien to her. But either scavenger from Jakku or Padawan in training, she’d need that help once in a while —sometimes, under the most unexpected of circumstances.  Instances in which Rey does not need help, others in which she refused it, and others in which she accepts it.</p><p> </p><p><b>A/N:</b> There’ll be extensive explanatory notes at the end. TFA spoilers, btw, and headcanons at play.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aiding and Asistance Protocols

"Really, buddy?" Poe Dameron's voice took on a concerned tone, "You should have told me sooner, I could have got you all set for an oil bath—"

There was a streaming succession of extremely acute beeps and tweaks, as BB-8 rolled its way to keep up with the man's pace. Poe chuckled at the droid's response.

"Well, you bet I am gonna get those supplies when we're back," he answered with a smile, "can't afford to have my flying pal with dirt on its junctures, can I?"

The little droid sprung on its axis at high speed, and let out a succession of short and longer beeps so high in pitch that Poe couldn't help wincing. BB-8 resumed his celebration twirling in circles.

Poe hopped again the pile of boxes he was carrying in his arms, careful so as to stop anything from falling out of it and also to rearrange the heavy weight he was transporting into the ship.

There was a loud clank behind him. An outrageous acute screech -that certainly could not belong to any other than BB-8 itself. A muffled colourful curse that got cut mid-sentence soon followed —and that one could not be other than Finn.

Poe hurried to the ship's entrance. A few meters ahead the landing platform, rations and other food provisions were scattered across the floor. Finn was standing amidst the mess pinching the bridge of his nose, grunting, while the droid spit out a relentless complain of bleeps.

"Yeah, I know. I am sorry BB-8. I didn't see you there," the man provided sentences of his whole apologize every time the droid made a brief pause.

BB-8 let out a long low sound as his head moved backwards over its prior position on its spherical body. Poe frowned, a reprimand about not having to be rude and condescending ready in his tongue. But before any of the men could say anything in return, in came Rey.

“I am sure Finn did not do it on purpose, Beebee-ate,” she prompted, voice calm and collected.

The droid's head slid sideways to the left at the sound of the woman's voice. It turned and rolled to the girl side, bumping into Finn in the process. He tweeted, the sound went down and up very distinctively.

“Of course you can assist us on the flight! Have you run a check up on the ship to see if all the systems are up and running before we leave?”

The droid let out a single short beep before spinning and dashing towards the cockpit. The girl walked past Finn, stepping and manoeuvring her steps swiftly, without crashing even a fruit. Suddenly, her steady balance seemed to falter, one of the upper small boxes was on the verge of falling.

Finn's hands went for the upper end of the stocking, as he pulled in the opposite direction of the gravity tilt, the small unsteady box got still.

“You sure you don't need a hand?”

Rey's lips pursued and she shook her head. "They're not that heavy," she paid no heed at how one of the pilot eyebrows quirked upwards, "I'd better hurry so I can help Chewie with the hyperdrive," she hushed, and with that she disappeared at the first corridor turn further inside the vessel.

Poe knelt down next to Finn, helped him place everything back on the boxes and into the refrigerated container on the opposite end of the ship.

While keying in the date of the goods, Poe noticed the way Finn winced when he yanked up the metal container atop another, by his side.

“Have you dropped by the medbay about that?” he said, casually, eyes still on the lighted screen.

Finn huffed. “It's nothing, just a strain. I must have pulled a muscle or something,” he shrugged.

Well, Poe thought, apparently Rey was not the only one reluctant to accept help that day. He let it be, did not utter a word as Finn exited the room, but made a mental note of another reason he had for punching Kylo Ren in the face.

* * *

 

“Here, thought it may come in handy,” Poe said, throwing the gun to a distracted Finn who nearly fell off the rock he was sitting on when trying to catch it.

When he caught his breath, though, the man's face contorted in awe. He fumbled for words, mouthing them but without uttering a sound, his eyes went from Poe to the blaster, back to Poe, several times. The pilot had to bit his lips to fight down the sudden urge to break down in laughter. And especially when Finn started pointing at him with the blaster, arms moving in excitement, letting out a series of _'really man? Really?!!_ ' in a strangled tone higher and higher in timbre.

Poe nodded. And at that Finn lost every bit of calmness he'd left, he whooped at the same time he sprinted up from the rock, nearly falling flat on his face.

“Are you serious??” he cried, smiling a broad grin from cheek to cheek, "how - how- how did you get your hands on THIS?" the last part was again a muffled scream.

Poe coughed, "I still have to check the plasma power cells but they seemed operational enough. Perhaps you can ask Rey later," he suggested, as Finn inspected the blaster with detailed scrutiny, judging by his lack of acknowledgment of his words whatsoever.

The trooper smile suddenly turned mischievous, “Can't wait to try this on Ren. I am pretty sure that even a lightsaber can't deflect a shot from this thing.”

Poe's stomach clenched at the memory of Jakku and his first encounter with Ren. Although an antique such as a DC-15A, one of the weapons of choice of clone troopers back in the Clone Wars so he'd heard, had a firepower to be reckoned with, he wasn't as convinced as Finn that it was off limits from the First Order Sith capabilities.

But if such a prospect had helped Finn to forget momentarily that they were stranded on a Force-forsaken planet of the Outer Rim, so be it.

“Sounds like a plan,” he agreed.

It wasn't long before Finn's commlink emitted its characteristic set of three beeps. He set the weapon aside and pressed the button to establish the incoming connection and answer the call. They were greeted with the noisy buzz of static, or wind, one could not be certain when in a planet of such environment.

“I've found it— I am about to go in,” Rey's voice stood above the clashing interference of the connection, “shouldn't take me long, tell BB-8 to keep the scan for incoming ships running! Keep an eye out for reckon droids, we don't know if the First Order knows about this place or not!” the buzzing sound increased, Rey's voice was bordering on yelling level.

“Copied that, but what do we do if we've company and you are still in there?” Finn asked, frowning at the mic.

There was a painful silence in the other end, broken only by the buzzing of the blizzard raging wild wherever their friend was.

“Don't engage before you neutralize their communications,” she said firmly, “the First Order can't afford the luxury to send a frighter to the system, let alone a whole assault squad to Illum's surface, because Kylo Ren says so, not after what happened in Mustafar.” There was a hint of pride on that last part.

“Copied that, Commander,” Poe interjected, “may the Force be with you.”

“And with you," her voice warm, "We'll see each other soon.”

BB-8 let out a concerned howl-like sound, its face looked down and its body rolled sideways on its very position on the harsh rock bed surface of the cave they were sheltering in.

“She's done this before, she'll be alright, buddy,” Poe assured the worried droid, “and there's nothing we can do to help her this time.”

BB-8 let out an ear-piercing tweet that resembled a screech quite successfully.

"Yes, I am very positive you can't help her bolting people or stuff up, Beebee-ate," the droid tweeted and its head turned to Finn, then chirped some more in what seemed to be a hushed and angry tone, then turned to its master. Poe chuckled before answering, “no, I am not saying that! And I am sure Finn must have felt very threatened that time in Jakku.”

Finn chuckled as well before turning to the droid, "yep, afraid for my life, Beebee-ate," he smiled broadly, “now come on and roll closer to the fire; we don't want frozen oil in your mechanisms, do we? Who's gonnna keep us posted on incoming ships if you turn off?”

Strangely enough, the droid beeped enthusiastically at Finn's words. “Yes, yes, you gotta keep us all safe, Beebee-ate," he convened, lips still curl up in a grin.

As the droid chose a spot near the small fire, Finn started feeling and patting the pockets of his jumper —not an easy a task trying to find something inside them with all that extensive woolen inside cover, mandatory clothing when the planet temperatures dropped several degrees below zero. Eventually, he felt something hard.

Poe caught the bar Finn'd tossed at him. BB-8 had, surprisingly, chosen a spot somewhat in the middle between the pilot and the trooper's —somewhat because if Poe noticed enough, he'd realize the droid was actually half a meter closer to him, Finn noted.

“It's starting to like you,” Poe commented off-handedly; apparently he'd taken notice of his gaze towards him and his mechanical companion, Finn gathered. "It's only a matter of time, y'know, it's a little rough on the edges, always has been," the pilot kept on, before taking a bite of the bar.

Finn'd have liked to point out that the droid barely had any edges, but instead he shrugged; although he was certainly most grateful that he and the little droid were starting to settle their differences. It was nice that he did not get a greeting of an extended telescopic arm with a menacing lit lighter those days.

The only thing that bothered Finn, and also Poe although he'd never worded it out loud or at all, was Rey. Well, not _her_ precisely, rather her attitude-

She'd lost that spark, so characteristic of her personality. Hardly had Finn seen the girl smiling recently; but he did not know how to ask without overstepping.

Sometimes, he felt that training had given them back a different, re-shaped version of the Rey he'd learnt to know.

Somewhat stoic, calmer. Sometimes bordering on colder.

Finn missed the Rey that _smiled too much_.

* * *

 

Rey pulled up the woolen cloth around her neck in a futile attempt to keep her respiratory system safe from the cold blizzard air. It was as if thousands of knives pierced her skin every time she found herself in the way and at mercy of the wind.

It was so different from Jakku, Rey thought. Where the desert left you drained, light headed and sticky, the harsh hands of nature forces that governed Ilum left one stiff, and oddly enough, in a momentary state of acute, constant stinging pain that preceded numbness.

Rey rubbed her hands together several times, as she tried to picture the sunny dunes of her former home and tried to trick her mind into believing that the crunching sound beneath her feet were salt crystals breaking under her weight —rather than a chunk of compacted snow on the brink of a mountain side.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before sliding down said mountainside. She pictured the X-Wing, atop the snowy plain terrain before her, in her mind. She swiveled to one side, to the other, slowed down, and moved aside again, repeating the process as she went down. She did so instinctively, without as much as a second thought, she just kind of… _feel_ it, whenever appropriate.

She squinted and rose to her feet. She saunter her way back to the ship. However, before pulling down the cockpit sill she just couldn't resist her own curiosity. Her gaze turned back to the mountain.

An excited smile curled her lips, and although Master Skywalker had advised against it, she couldn't help the little bubble of pride that rose within her chest at the print of her previous slide. She'd ducked every rock in the way.

And with the crystal safe, she set course to the cave three standard kilometers up ahead.

* * *

 

Poe heard her grunt from the corridor. He hesitated before turning on his spot and walking towards Rey's quarters.

The door was closed shut, but the pilot could hear the distinct sound of her pace and the faint clatter of metal.

“What is it Poe?” came her anguished voice right when Poe was about to knock on the door. There swift sound of the air compressor, and the door slid open, “what happened? Are we out of hyperspace?” she asked without turning, body crunched over the small work desk.

Poe noticed several papers with sketches and scribbles on the floor. He even saw a datapad, screen lit and shining, right next to his foot. Instead of replying, he knelt down and picked it up.

His frown dropped immediately as realization washed it away from his face, an expression resembling understanding replaced it soon enough, the sympathy evident in the warmth that filled his eyes.

Rey's expression clouded up as she stared at the elements atop the desk. Her fingers tapped on the surface as her gaze remained fixed on the tools and the efforts of her work. She did not even move a muscle when he approached.

“I know nothing about the Force or how it works,” Poe started, leaving the data-pad on the desk by her hand. She did not react at that, but did when he squeezed her shoulder, she turned to look at him, “but I have the feeling that this,” he said, gesturing with a hectic flourish of his hand to the mess of metal, “is not something you can find in a book.”

  Poe knew that in the days of the Empire all data and information concerning the Jedi had been destroyed —so as wiping something out from records made it awfully simpler to modify and alter history. He guessed that all the ancient knowledge of the Jedi was lost… and whatever remains might have survived had surely followed the same fate, at the hands of the First Order. Granted, he was no Padawan, and certainly no Jedi Master, but something told him that Rey's distress could be tackled in a better fashion.

Rey listened attentively, but her expression did not show any sign of lively improvement. She sighed instead, most heavily.

“I know, I know," she muttered, taking the crystal with cautious fingers. Her grip tightened around it, felt the sharp edges of the prism with her thumb while she stared at it, "it's just—" she sighed heavily again, "never mind. Let me know when we arrive to the base."

Poe pressed his lips together, nodding. He took a step to turn, and then halted. He looked back at the girl bent over the work desk.

"There's no ignorance, there's knowledge," he blurted out.

There was a loud clang, soon followed by a grunt.

"What—?"

"Something I read somewhere once," Poe replied distractedly without turning, and taking another step, "I am just saying that perhaps you should take it easy, I didn't learn how to fly from the get-go after all," his voice turned softer at that.

He heard Rey breath out, but this time it wasn't a gloomy sound. It was somewhat calmer, more collected. Poe identified the noise of her feet shuffling on the floor. She stopped at Poe's side, who eyed her curiously; she rolled her shoulders forward until there was a soft crack.  

"I could use a break—and a snack," she said, managing a brief smile,"we do have Glen rations left, do we?"

"You wanna eat _that_ when we have crystal mushroom soup?" he asked bewildered.

 

Later on, both Poe and Finn found their chatter broken by a screech, or an overly excited squeal more accurately, that broke the calmness of the ship immersed in hyperspace. Even BB-8 beeped curiously, and also somewhat anxiously, at the sound.

A few seconds afterwards, there was a hectic ruffle of steps and Rey appeared by the door, beaming for what seemed the first time in ages.

She was holding a long metal shaft; corners of her lips still roused, she placed it on the deck. It seemed to be made of several sections of tubes of different diameter. There were some angular sections connected on some sides, breaking the roundness of the design here and there. There were shrouds on each end. The centre stood out most with and two small rectangular plates.

Finn stared at him without uttering a word, but with wide eyes. He muttered something before gaping at the object, then turned to Poe, pointed at Rey, and then looked back at Poe frowning. In the meantime, BB-8 had rolled closer, its visual cam inches away from it. The droid's head swiveled upwards and it looked at Finn, then back at the object, back at Finn, before breaking into an ear-piercing acute succession of beeps. Rey smile widened and she nodded at their mechanical companion.

"Are you kidding me?" Finn whispered; Poe patted him on the shoulder.

Rey grabbed the shaft and with a _snap-hiss_ , the cockpit was suddenly lit anew with an alien, bright yellow light.

* * *

 

"Remind me again why we're here," Finn asked, panting, as his hand clutched at the closest girder.

"We need to infiltrate and get information about which system is going to be targeted next," Rey replied, absent-mindedly, her gaze scanning the ship inner construction for an easy route to the main bridge. They were still on the deck levels, "if we can strip them out of resources, we'll be able to delay any upcoming invasion."

"You mean put on hold," Finn breathed heavily, "and why are we taking Beebee-ate with us?" the droid tweeted and peered over his shoulder, safely clutched inside the backpack on Finn's back, "the First Order doesn't have any Beebee units, they'll spot him right away."

"Which is why we've painted it black and red," the droid emitted low chirps, Rey turned to it, "I'm so sorry, I promise I am going to re-paint you white and orange again myself once this mission is over." The chirps from the droid turned shorter, more acute at her words.

Rey tightened the bag strap over her shoulder after making sure that all the armor parts were still inside it. She looked down at Finn, and hold out her hand. Finn half frowned, half smiled, before grabbing it and propelled himself up. He kept climbing upwards the rails and gridges. Rey stayed behind, inspecting the ship's map on her portable hologram projection pod. Finn took out his portable scanner from his jacket pocket.

"We're good, just two life-forms detected," he informed briefly, before tugging the device back into his jacket. BB-8 beeped, "no, I won't let you fall, trust me," there was another concerned beep, "have I ever lied to you?" another series of demeaning tweets, "oh, really? Are you still holding _that_ against me?"

Rey couldn't help but snort. Finn rolled his eyes.

"You're not helping!" Finn frowned and bellowed at her, crossed.

He frowned, but like the girl had done before he reached out his hand, once she saw her gaze darting from side to side, presumably looking for the best spot to set foot on. She stopped crooking her neck when she took notice of Finn's extended hand. But she shook her head.

"Thanks, but there's no need," she jumped upwards, or rather flew upwards —yes, flying was definitely closer to what she'd just pulled, Finn reflected—, "you're already carrying Beebee-ate, Finn, don't worry," he heard the echoes reverberating through the metal structure, "we'll meet at the Artillery Platform level."

"I am definitely not used to it yet," Finn whispered under his breath, as he saw Rey's figure getting smaller into the distance.

The droid hummed.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, gotta keep up. On it."

* * *

 

Finn eyes were focused on reading the final draft report he'd typed down. It had to be delivered to General Organa after the briefing at headquarters with the lead generals, set to take place twenty standard hours ahead. Finn was a little bit anxious about it, he'd never been on that end of the chain before, standing right with higher ranks of the military in equal terms during his time on the First Order —definitely, the many times he'd to walk past an infuriated Kylo Ren did not count, as neither did his encounters with a pompous, stiffed General Hux. Oddly enough, those casual acquaintances had always happened barely a minute apart—

His reflection on whether the First Order vicar and general moods had something to do with them not being able to stand each other was cut short by a loud thud, followed by several stomps.

He guessed BB-8 must have bumped into something and dropped it —along with several other things— as it made its way through the freighter. He did not bother in standing up to go and tidy up the mess, Poe was probably already on it. Besides, he'd an important task at hand to keep him busy, and he'd deflected his attention from it enough with his musings about the First Order —why did he even thought about the guy who nearly killed him, by the way? The Generals did not want to know about any of that.

He cleared his throat and pictured the meeting room of the base in his mind, the ring of officials surrounding the massive round holoprojector. He was about to start to mumble his speech-like exposition to practice when he heard another set of thuds.

His brow furrowed. He eyed his commlink sitting atop the pillow of his bunker. He shook his head and pushed it further away. Surely if there was something out of place going on, either of his crew companions would contact him.

When the noise repeated itself a third time Finn decided that checking it up would not hurt anyone. And he did have plenty of time to review, correct and even change the report and its deliver on the meeting. After all, he had almost a day worth of time.

Finn climbed up the staircase and strode along the corridor, heading towards the noise, which gave away the right path to take. The thuds seemed to come from an enclosed place, since the sound was distant, faint. The metallic rails of the floor clattered under his weight, he hurried his pace. The sound became clearer when he took a turn towards the storage room. But before he could set a foot inside, a container materialized from nowhere and landed clumsily inches away from his boot.

Finn was barely successful at suppressing the scream that went up his throat at the astonishment. He was still trying to process what'd just happened when another container hit the floor, half a meter ahead, to reveal a very surprised Rey standing on the middle of the room, surrounded by piles and piles of those very same containers.

“Finn! Are you okay?” the girl asked, and her face contorted, alarmed.

“You?” Finn said in turn, before even nodding in assurance, “what happened?”

Rey looked down to the mess before answering, "I've been trying to load these in the upper compartments, but," she paused, pressed her lips together and sighed, “I guess I can't,” she gestured vaguely with her hand at the many boxes that were practically surrounding her from all sides imaginable.

Finn quirked an eyebrow, “you mean you tried to lift all of them?” he inquired, utterly puzzled, “but how did you even manage to— oh,” he trailed off mid-sentence in sudden realization.

So that was how that container had appeared out of nowhere. Apparently the Force could be used for other non–galaxy–saving related purposes.

“You need a hand then?” he asked, cautiously, overly aware how resilient Rey was about being helped.

The girl merely nodded, and joy spread warningly in his chest. He tried to mask it, though, but surely he had not been that successful at suppressing his grin because Rey, too, smiled —a brief curl of lips that lasted no more than a blink of an eye, so different from the broad smiles after the escape from Jakku. But it was a smile, nonetheless.

Finn tried to maneuver both the container weight and his steps, but he found he could hardly reach the top of the ones already piled up.

“Perhaps I can just— pull them up one by one.” Rey prompted, scratching the back of her neck.

 “Were you trying to pile them up all together at once?”

“Three or two at a time, actually,” she almost whispered, shyly, for an answer.

Finn crooked his neck a bit, looking upwards and trying to make out the arrangement of the containers in the dim light.

“I think I've got an idea.”

 

Poe took a generous bite of the Correlian apple as he paced down the aisle. He'd run short of bandages, and that nasty burn on his arm needed a change of those regularly. Next time he ought to be mindful of his impulses and stay on his element. Despite some basic training, he was no trooper, it was only by sheer luck he'd not been gunned down by those Stormtroopers at Felucia —a single blast from the X-Wing primary plasma canons would have sufficed, really, to fight them of and keep them from catching up to both Finn and Rey.

He took another bite of the sweet fruit. Unexpected situations called from unexpected measures, after all. Not to mention nobody could afford Rey to be captured by the First Order again, and particularly after General Organa herself had trusted Poe with the task of keeping her away from harm. It was not that she could not do that _for herself_ , but as the General had softly pointed out, there were circumstances in which not even a Jedi could cover all its vulnerable flanks... someone trained in the Force and skilled in lightsaber fighting could do as much as holding off a whole heavily armored battalion of troopers, until the moment in which defence was no longer a viable option.

He was thrown out of his pensive state by a sudden, odd noise. It seemed to be coming from the storage bay. He frowned, puzzled, as he headed towards the room. When he entered, however, his initial confusion was replaced with an urge to laugh.

Rey was up on Finn's shoulders, using the Force to lift those heavy cargo containers and load them into the upper compartments. Finn tried to maintain his balance as he took a few steps, moving accordingly to make the placement easier. Whenever Finn or Rey's control faltered, the other blurted out an apology even though there was little they'd have done to actually affect the other's duty. They were so absorbed that neither of them had took notice of the pilot standing in the door way.

Poe leaned against the door frame, biting the last bits of his apple between smiles and pursued lips to keep the laughter at bay. BB-8 emitted a few short acute, high chirps as it looked up to Poe. He quirked an eyebrow.

"Don't you dare."

But BB-8 rolled at high speed towards them and started circling, mechanical arm with lighter lit and up, emitting long ear-piercing beeps of pure joy.

Surrounded by her three friends Rey realized that maybe, just maybe, all the hardships from the responsibilities and duties to peace and the galaxy trusted upon her would, somewhat, end up seeming easier. As long as she had them by her side.

**Author's Note:**

> There is no ignorance, there is knowledge, is a part of the Jedi code. I thought that was fitting that someone reminded Rey that she’s allowed to struggle with her powers and the whole being a Jedi thing, and who’d be better for such a task than Poe? :)) I gave Rey a double-bladed lightsaber because after seeing how efficient she’s with just a metal shaft on Jakku, I am more than sure that that type of lightsaber will fit her fighting skills and techniques. The blade colour of choice… yellow, because it was traditionally used by Jedi Sentinels during the old Republic. Since they stood for a balance between physical and knowledge skills of the Force, I wanted to give Rey a symbolic representation that she’s to bring balance once again.


End file.
